The present invention relates to a device for transferring elongate food products, such as for instance sausages. The invention also relates to a method for transferring elongate food products, such as for instance sausages.
During the manufacture and the first subsequent processing steps elongate food products, such as for instance sausages, are generally further displaced from a product location in a relative orientation placed successively in a row one behind another. That is, the elongate food products are usually supplied in a longitudinal direction. Later processing steps may require a displacement in a direction perpendicularly of the longitudinal, this direction being referred to here as a transverse direction. There may be different reasons for a displacement in lateral direction; the sausages can for instance be transported (more compactly) in a lateral direction in closer arrangement, the transport speed in lateral direction can be reduced, determined operations—such as for instance packaging—can be carried out in more controlled manner, and so on. A change in the transport direction of the elongate food products requires (perpendicular) transfer of the products. Particularly characteristic of elongate food products is moreover that they are generally vulnerable and may therefore be mechanically loaded to only limited extent. Yet another condition for the transfer of food products is that it must take place in hygienic manner.
The object of the present invention is to provide a reliable transfer device with which elongate food products can be transferred at high speed without the food products being damaged.